Probing intermediate-mass black hole binaries with the Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna

Abstract

New concepts for observing the gravitational waves (GWs) using a detector on the Moon, such as the Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna (LGWA), have gained increasing attention. By utilizing the Moon as a giant antenna, the LGWA is expected to detect GWs in the frequency range from 1 millihertz (mHz) to several hertz, with optimal sensitivity in the decihertz band. Despite the debated formation and evolution channel of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) with masses in the range of $[10^2,10^5]{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$, binary systems containing at least one IMBH are widely believed to generate GWs spanning from mHz to a few Hz, making them a key scientific target for the LGWA. We explore the detectability of IMBH binaries with the LGWA in this work. The LGWA is more sensitive to nearby binaries (i.e. with redshift $z\lesssim 0.5$) with the primary mass $m_1\in [10^4,10^5]{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$, while it prefers distant binaries (i.e. $z\gtrsim 5$) with $m_1\in [10^3,10^4]{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$. Considering a signal-to-noise ratio threshold of 10, our results imply that the LGWA can detect IMBH binaries up to $z\sim \mathcal{O}(10)$. We further show that the LGWA can constrain the primary mass with relative errors $\lesssim 0.1\%$ for binaries at $z\lesssim 0.5$. Furthermore, we show that the IMBH binaries at $z\lesssim 0.1$ can be used to constrain redshift with relative errors $\lesssim 10\%$, and those with $m_1\in [10^4,10^5]{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$ can be localized by the LGWA to be within $\mathcal{O}(10)$ $\mathrm{de}{\mathrm{g}}^2$.

10 pages, 7 figures

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